Lecture Two: Dark cities and Oligarchic Formations: Illicit finance and money influence in citiies

Lecture Two: Dark cities and Oligarchic Formations: Illicit finance and money influence in contemporary cities, 3^rd November, 4.15-5.45pm , Teaching Room 1, Geography and Planning Building

Professor Rowland Atkinson, School of Geography and Planning

Knowledge of the rich and their influence is important because it compels us to reflect on the possibility that money power may triumph over other forms of representation, undermine active and democratic forms of politics, and damage the capacity of citizenries to secure key resources such as housing, health and educational provisions. This presentation considers two key issues relation to such questions of knowledge, power and wealth/resource. First, we will look at the dark city phenomenon in which illicit financial flows form major investment conduits in key hubs like London, New York, Dubai, and Hong Kong. Here the effect is one of intense gains via combinations of illicit and conventional financial processing that generates a hollow or darkened city as revenues are diverted away from social investment. The second phenomenon is the development of ‘oligarcities’, urban spaces in which wealth-influence is becoming increasingly evident. Here reflections are offered on an upcoming five-year project that will examine the role of ‘oligarchic formations’ of the rich and delegated actors in key cities today. 

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This lecture is part of the Sheffield Urbanism Lecture series - an initiative of the Urban Institute to stimulate dialogue, discussion and understanding of processes of urbanisation and urban life. It is intended as a space to reimagine both the conceptualisations and narratives of urban studies. The 2026 lecture series will build from the expertise, debates and research activities around Finance Urbanism with agenda setting talks from leading thinkers from across the Faculty of Social Science.

Finance Urbanism In the Age of Crisis

Urbanisation, built environments and infrastructures are entwined with the circulation and flows of finance that operate at accelerating speed across our towns and cities. Local governments and communities struggle against austerity and ‘growth-based’ ideologies amid the integration of accumulation regimes across every aspect of city-life. Climate change imperatives and new riskscapes prompt attempts to piece together financial tools and mechanisms to adapt and survive growing ecological breakdown and extreme weather events. Meanwhile, the super-rich build fortressed enclaves to insulate themselves in luxury, influence democratic planning and instigate new forms of speculation to build more wealth. Finance urbanism proceeds in an age of intensifying crisis. However, precisely what this means for cities and urban life remains to be fully articulated even as we see demands for new types of knowledge, ways of researching and forms of collective action.

The 2026 lecture series on Finance Urbanism, follows a long trajectory of sometime overlapping, sometime separate debates in how we examine these dynamic relations between the city and finance. Comprising lectures from some of the leading thinkers on finance and the urban the series offers an opportunity for a significant intervention to cohere a new set of co-ordinates and future possibilities.